Post: A very business like day today, straight to the point (if you don’t get lost en route!) and a 133 miles clocked up in the day. Very creditable. What new pastures are opened up with a lightweight under your bottom! We should all be proud that Charlie is now sitting on a lightweight !
Sunday, June 14 Bwlch Rhiwfelyn
As Tom would not be out this weekend, I decided to scout my clubrun for next Sunday, so at 6.15am, I made a start. I pottered down via Leigh and Winwick to Warrington, then along Chester road, being in poor form for anything else. From Chester, I joined Wrexham road to Rossett, then turned into the hills, climbing from the Vale of Gresford, then switch-backing to Cefn-y-Bedd. The pretty little vale now led me to Ffrwd, then the climb towards Bwlch Gwyn. I mistook the Ffrith turn, dropping, instead down a vile-surfaced road to a river. There was a footbridge, but the road led into the river, a rather wide one too, so I mounted the bike and tried to cross. It was at once pebbly, sandy, and boulder strewn, and I had to put one foot down when I stopped in the middle. It was knee deep too! The road proved a dead end after all, so I had to return (via the bridge) to the Bwlch Gwyn road. Then the long grind uphill, the drop into that pretty vale and the ‘S’ bend over the bridge where the parapet is partly missing and a slip would mean at least a few weeks cessation of activities, and the other long climb up to the ‘shelf’ at Bwlch Gwyn. With the beautiful sweep of Maes Maelor on my right, I faced an argumentative wind across the exposed moors until the road ran into a nant and gave me shelter.
Yes, they would make lunch at the Crown – they always welcome cyclists, and soon I was tucking in with great gusto. A Liverpudlian entered, and we chatted together, leaving together, for we found that both of us were on the same errand – bound for the Horseshoe Pass. It is not a very stiff climb to the summit – so that except for a short steep pitch by the Travellers Rest Inn, we rode it. What a view from the top! We were fortunate to get such a perfectly clear day, the principal peaks of Snowdonia being visible, besides the Glyders, the gap of Nant Ffrancon, the bulky Carneddau, and a whole parcel of peaks round Ffestiniog. We lingered here, then carried on until another fine view, this time of the deep hollow, the beautiful setting in which Llangollen is placed, and steep-sided Dinas Bran with Eglwyseg Rocks backing the scene and the blunt Berwyns behind the Vale of Llangollen, presented itself to our expectant eye. Then a long downhill rush down the Pass. (Bwlch Rhiwfelyn, or Bwlch Oernant in Welsh). Through pleasant woods, past the Abbey of Valle Crucis, and so to Llangollen. The usual linger on the Dee Bridge, then along to Trevor, Acrefair, and pits and tram lines to dirty Wrexham. We were not sorry to get to Chester, where my friend left me, and I carried on to Mickle Trafford for tea. I returned home the usual way then. 133 miles